Todai-ji Temple, Nara
東大寺、奈良
- Birth Year
- 1913
- Death Year
- 1954
- Date
- 1954 (reprinted in 1985)
- Technique, Material, Format
- gelatin silver print
- Dimension
- 22.0 x 33.5 cm
- Donor name
- Mr. Cornell Capa
- Category
- Photograph or Moving Image by ForeignPhotographer/Artist
- Inventory Number
- 87-PHF-204
In April 1954, Robert Capa visited Japan for the first time, at the invitation of newspaper company Mainichi Shimbun. During his 19-day stay, he traveled around Tokyo, Atami, and the Kansai region, photographing at each location. Capa took many photographs of ordinary people, especially children, and he was recorded as saying, “Rather than the blossoming cherry trees, it is the Japanese people beneath those trees that really capture my heart.” In this shot, taken at Todai-ji Temple in Nara, his lens is aimed not at the Great Buddha for which the temple is famous but at the students observing it.
This trip to Japan is often treated only as a footnote towards the end of Capa’s career, but the group of photographs it produced shows clearly how his gaze was focused on people rather than objects or events.
(MATSUNAGA Shintaro)